The 2018 Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival is celebrating the twentieth anniversary of one of the City’s biggest promoters of live music – the Capital Bar – with 2 special retrospective shows at this year’s Festival. The shows will take place Thursday night in the Atlantic Lottery Barracks Tent and feature acts that are well known to Capital – and Harvest audiences from over the past 20 years.

The night will kick off with a free show from local reggae collective and Wednesday night stalwarts Dub Antenna and be followed by a ticketed show featuring Motherhood, who will play their much-loved first album Diamonds & Gold; Elliott Brood, whose Capital performances over the years are the stuff of legend; and a rare – and perhaps, final – performance by local heroes Grand Theft Bus, a favorite at the Capital since day one.

“Harvest is all about celebrating the live music experience and no venue has meant more to that experience in Fredericton than the Capital since it opened its doors 20 years ago”, said Harvest Music Programmer, Brent Staeben. “They’ve kept the scene alive here, introduced music fans to a wide variety of new acts, given locals a place to shine, somehow found a way to persevere and done it all with excellent taste and good humour too. This city is very lucky to have the Capital, Harvest has been very lucky to have the Capital and so we’re celebrating what this venue means to us and to music in this city”.

The Capital Bar has been Fredericton’s premiere live music venue for two decades. First opening its doors in 1998, The Capital quickly grew from a small bar to a fixture of the Fredericton music scene. The small but mighty venue presents local, national, and international acts with 200+ shows/events each year. A Top 10 Finalist in CBC’s Searchlight for Venue of the Year, The Capital has hosted acts like the Arkells, The Sheepdogs, July Talk, Grimes, Dan Mangan, and countless other iconic acts at various points in their careers.

“Since the first time I worked the bar at the Capital during a Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival I could feel the change that the festival brought to the city”, said Wes Ward, Owner of the Capital Complex. ”Over the years, the Capital has strived to recreate that feeling each and every night. The organizers and volunteers do a tremendous job of putting on the festival and we at the Capital are honoured to be able to take part this year at the Atlantic Lottery Barracks Tent in celebrating our 20 years”.

Tickets are on sale now to all Harvest shows, including this one now, and can be purchased online at etixnow.com, or by using a self-serve etixnow kiosk in Fredericton at Harvest Central (81 Regent Street), Graystone Brewing (221 King Street), and Grimross Brewing (600 Bishop Drive), or in Saint John at Backstreet Records (124 Germain Street). The Dub Antenna show is part of the CBC Free Harvest program while Deloitte is the presenting show sponsor for the Thursday night 20th Anniversary Celebration.